England Senior Team General Discussion Thread

Very interesting how Southgate will set up the midfield. Grealish and Foden could start together if we are playing a weaker side. Playing a strong team it will be interesting to see how he sets the midfield up and if he is brave enough to play a midfield that will allow England to control possession.

 

I would be very surprised if Southgate played Grealish anywhere other than in a wide position.

 

Grealish doesn't particularly shine in central midfield anyway, by far his best performances for Villa are out wide on the left (although its really more a free role).

 

Why would he drop Pickford? Henderson was in the last squad so he doesn't actually need to drop anyone for him.

 

Also, who would you replace him with? I think in the last squad would have been Pickford, Henderson and Pope so not sure who you have in there instead of Pickford.

 

Just based on pickfords form this season. I would still have him number 1 long term but just see what others can do

 

Saka with another assist. This boy really is something special. We are so lucky in England to have a very special generation of youngsters coming through. If we don't win something in the next 10 years with players like saka greenwood foden trent sancho odoi rashford then it will be a travesty. I know Belgium could say the same

 

Belgium looked flat in 2014 and lost to an Argentina team who were a bad matchup for them. In 2016, the whole teams seemed to hate Wilmots and really missed a huge opportunity to win it all by losing to Wales in the weaker side of the knockout bracket. 2018 they were playing close to their potential but lost to France who deserves to win the World Cup. Belgium still have enough talent to win in 2021 but they won’t be favorites.

 

I would put England as third favourites behind France and Belgium

 

Really happy to see Danny Ings has turned his career around gotten and back into contention for England.

 

Germany and Spain are more talented than Belgium. Heck, even Holland are a more organized side than them.

 

I see France as the only team that England would have a really hard time beating. Other than France I’m confident we can beat anybody and hang a couple of goals on them too.

 

I concur

 

I’d like to see Rashford , Saka , Sancho as our front three , full stop

 

You can't discount Belgium, any team with Hazard (though it'll be interesting to see how he does next season) and De Bruyne has the creativity to win tournaments, but you'd have to say that 2018 and 2016 were their best chances of ever winning a tournament.

Their defensive quality has declined quite a lot since those tournaments (not that they ever really had any defensive depth - which probably cost them in Euro 2016 with Kompany out), and they've also lost some of their more experience midfielders like Dembele, Fellaini, and Nainggolan.

 

There are plenty of teams that we would have a hard time beating imo, especially with our defence and unconvincing goalkeeper. On current form, they would make me nervous and couldn’t really see us beating that many. Belguim, Germany, France, Spain, Holland, Portugal would all be very difficult games for us at the moment and I wouldn’t feel that confident going into them.

 

We are easily capable of beating all if them bar France. I really don't rate Holland, aside from de Jong, de ligt and vvd there isn't a huge amount of quality. Germany are talented but like us are defensively weak, Portugal are a very strong side but lack a natural goalscorer without ronaldo. Spain are too weak in many areas. Belgium are on the wane. I would fancy greenwood, kane, saka sterling, foden, sancho, rashford, too rip any of those defences apart

 

Mate, you are way to confident and maybe I’m a bit negative but I can’t see us easily beating any of those teams to be honest. All will be tough and provide different problems for us to overcome. I’m not saying we can’t beat them but I think some people are way to confident at the moment. We are not the only Country to produce good quality kids, there are many and we shouldn’t discount them so easily as we seem to do on this thread.

 

I'm not saying we will defeat any of them easily just we are capable which means at our best we can. we are stronger than alot of them in most areas other than centreback

 

Also I don't see Belgium producing anywhere near the amount of youngsters that they were with this generation. Germany only have one or two. Spain are relying on the same players. Italy have a few, Holland are still away behind us

 

I wouldn't be confident in facing any of the big nations until we get some better midfielders.

 

Winks, cheek, Henderson are all good midfielders. Foden, grealish and maddison could all be classed as attacking midfielders

 

So you keep telling us. All you’re interested in doing is building up and knocking down.

It’s getting really boring seeing you reel off a list of players every day as if you’re some kind of visionary. Then a week later changing your mind and saying they should be dropped.

 

We have eight fixtures lined up for later this year. I’d also like to see Henderson and Pope start a couple of games but are you talking about dropping Pickford from the squad altogether?

 

I agree somewhat with Roverman on this take but you are right that none of these teams are easy to beat. Personally, England are better than most at our best.